On May 16, Swampscott's town hall filled with music, traditional food, and the kind of pride that comes from seeing your own community clearly for the first time. The Heritage Festival, organized by the Students Of Color Association (SOCA) and the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), had returned for its third year—and this time, organizers say, the turnout proved something important to skeptics: Swampscott is far more diverse than many realize.
The event matters because it challenges a common misconception. In towns like Swampscott, demographic diversity often goes unnoticed unless someone bothers to create a stage for it. "Not many people think Swampscott is a very diverse area," said METCO co-director Temi Bailey. "Being able to showcase that and host events like this where townspeople who are of different culture, different backgrounds, can come out, host a table to show their culture, to show their heritage"—that's the whole point. It's visibility as celebration, community-building as culture-sharing.
The festival itself was full of specifics. Two musical performances anchored the program, accompanied by a traditional dance. Two middle schoolers read a poem exploring what it means to truly appreciate your heritage. For younger attendees, bounce houses proved such a draw that Bailey singled them out as "a great hit with the kids"—a detail that speaks to how these celebrations work best when they span generations.
The food tables told their own story of Swampscott's actual makeup. Traditional dishes came from Africa, Europe, and the Dominican Republic, each representing families and histories woven into the town's fabric. SOCA also welcomed Swampscott Unites, Respects, and Embraces (SURE) Diversity, an organization that staffed an educational table about the power and significance of different cultures—turning the festival into something more than performance, but genuine dialogue.
A parallel fundraiser at Swampscott High School added lightness to the mission. Students and community members paid to nominate classmates to get pied in the face, with the person raising the most money taking the dessert. Janerys Jaquez won the competition, though she couldn't attend the festival that day. Instead, fellow student Rayyan Asad accepted the honor on her behalf—a small moment that somehow captures the spirit of the day: community members showing up for each other, even in silly ways.
The Heritage Festival began in 2022, which means this third iteration represents momentum. What started three years ago as an experiment in visibility has become something the community counts on, something SOCA considers its largest annual event. "Honestly it's been great every year," Bailey reflected, a simple statement that carries weight when you understand what it represents: year after year, Swampscott residents choosing to gather, to listen, to eat together, to see their neighbors as they actually are. In a country where so many communities remain fractured along invisible lines, that choice—and that consistency—is quietly remarkable.